STEAM FINISH WEEKEND WITH WIN OVER POSSE

Summerland Steam Forward Daylan Robertson goes in on a breakaway
during a game vs the Princeton Posse on February 8th. He scored.
Photo: Sarah Mayer (shotsbysarah.tumblr.com) 

Heading into a Sunday afternoon matinee with the Princeton Posse this past weekend, the Summerland Steam found themselves winless in 4 games. They tied two of those games, but were looking to start to build towards the playoffs with just two games remaining after Sunday.

They were successful, beating the visitors from the Similkameen by a score of 3-2. The Steam were looking for a fast start against Princeton after coming out flat against Kelowna in a 4-3 loss on Friday night. Summerland got the start they wanted, getting goals from Wyatt Gale, his 11th of the season, and Daylan Robertson, his 3rd, in the first 10:00 of the first period.

Paulsen Lautard would make the score 3-0 with a gorgeous goal, his 19th of the season, in the first 2 minutes of the third period. Princeton would then stage a comeback of sorts as Trevor Pereverzoff banked a puck in off of Steam defender Cole Williams with 3:11 remaining. Brandon Schaber would then slap a puck the length of the ice into the Steam net with just :01 left on the clock as the Steam started to pour off the bench towards goaltender Brett Huber. The goal would stand, as would the score at 3-2. Huber made 22 saves on 24 shots in the game while his counterpart, Princeton's Stephen Heslop stopped 27 of 30.

The loss for Princeton meant they stayed just 2 points up on the Kelowna Chiefs for 3rd in the KIJHL's Okanagan Division. If the playoffs started at the end of play this weekend, the Posse would be the first round opponent for Summerland when playoffs get underway on February 20th and 21st at the Summerland Arena.

The win was a welcome sign for the Summerland Steam after that 4-3 loss to the Kelowna Chiefs on Friday. Dakota Kittle would net the winner for the Chiefs while Nick Josephs, Kevin Roth and Cole De Jonge also tallied for the visitors. Josephs led the Chiefs offensively with 3 points in the game, giving him 12 points in just 4 games played since returning to the Chiefs. Rylan Sideroff, Daylan Robertson and Braden Eliuk would tally for the Steam in the loss while Spencer Huff made 19 saves for Summerland.

Summerland now sits clearly in 2nd place with 61 points heading to the final weekend of the season. They will host the KIJHL Champion Osoyoos Coyotes on Friday the 13th before travelling to Kelowna for the season finale against the Chiefs.